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VATICAN CITY — It is not unusual for Pope Benedict XVI to end his weekly general audience by telling his thousands of visitors that he has a special appeal to make — normally for peace in some troubled part of the world.

Pope Benedict XVI watches a juggler from Circus Medrano performing at the end of his general audience. (CNS photo/Reuters)

But today’s audience was totally out of the ordinary, and not just because the pope watched some jugglers and petted a lion cub from a circus.

“I still have three things to communicate,” he said when the performance was over and the bouncy music had ended.

And, third — without mentioning traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that the Nazis used gas chambers to kill millions of Jews — Pope Benedict highlighted the importance of yesterday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day and expressed his solidarity with the Jewish people, the people with whom God first chose to establish a covenant.

It really felt like the pope was doing some juggling of his own.

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